Brianna Mary Shihadeh, an artist with an obsession with body modification, tried to taste two drinks at the same time. The California artist has surgically split her tongue and claims she can taste two different drinks at the same time.
Recently, Shihadeh posted a video for her 228,000 Instagram followers and captioned it 'what two flavours would you try first?'
In the video, she is seen with two glasses of drinks - plain water and Sprite. When she lowers her head, the split tongue allows her to taste both drinks at the same time. The caption on the Instagram reel shows her response which reads "this makes my brain feel weird".
The reel already has 200,000 views.
Someone commented on the video and asked if the experience is the same as drinking a mix of water and Sprite. She answered, "you can taste it as two separate items, not mixed".
While the video makes for a curious watch, the surgery of tongue splitting is dangerous. An article in the British Dental Journal says people who do it are putting themselves at serious risk of "haemorrhage, infection, and nerve damage". Some people also lose the ability to breathe effortlessly and swallow.
Surgeons use an argon laser or a cautery tool to split the tongue. The procedure involves a heated beam of the laser or a tool along the area the client wants to be split. This will burn through the tongue tissue while sealing the blood vessels to prevent bleeding.
Selina Master, Junior Vice Dean of the Faculty of Dental Surgery at the Royal College of Surgeons in the United Kingdom, says she has seen some horrific consequences of these surgeries.
Body modifications have become very popular across the world. While it has cultural roots, many in modern times do it as a form of self-expression. In the US, body modifications are legal if the person is of legal age and has given informed consent. In the UK, extreme forms of body modification that cause harm are considered assaults on the body.